Nothing moves the moment the hammer falls. First the auction house issues an invoice, then the buyer pays, then the yard receives a release note, and only then can a carrier send a vehicle. From the fall of the hammer, risk of loss and damage normally passes to the buyer: the machine stands on the yard at the buyer expense, even though it is physically still with the seller.
Four steps that cannot be reordered
- Invoice. The auction house issues it to the details given at registration. A wrong company name or a missing VAT number is corrected now, not at the border, because this is the document that later feeds the customs declaration.
- Payment. Sellers usually release equipment once funds are credited, not once a transfer is instructed. An international payment can take longer than the collection calendar assumes.
- Release note. It goes by different names, release note, collection note, gate pass, and it is this document, not the invoice, that opens the gate. It has to name the person or company entitled to collect.
- Collection. Only now does sending a vehicle make sense. A truck at the gate without a release note is an empty run that somebody pays for.
The moment the machine becomes your problem
Conditions of sale usually pass risk to the buyer at the fall of the hammer, not at loading. Which means that between the sale and the arrival of the trailer, the machine stands on somebody else yard but on the buyer account. Attachments stolen, damage while the yard shunts lots around, broken glass, none of that is covered by the contract of carriage, because carriage has not started. Carrier liability runs from taking over the goods to delivery, as we set out in our piece on carrier liability under CMR. The gap before loading is closed by insurance on the buyer side, and we cover the scope and the exclusions in our article on cargo insurance.
The removal clock starts at the sale, not at payment
This is the most common calendar mistake. Conditions of sale usually count the removal deadline from the day of the sale, not from the day the buyer managed to pay. A few days of delay in the transfer therefore eats the carrier time, not the buyer time. What happens once the deadline passes, and where the two separate waiting charges come from, is covered in our article on collection deadlines and storage charges.
What is created along the way that customs will need
The auction invoice is the starting document for the customs value but not the whole of it, as we explained in our piece on the customs value of a used auction machine. The declaration also needs the buyer EORI number, a description and tariff code for the machine, and its identification: make, model, serial number. The last of those is a real problem on older equipment, which is why we gave it a separate article on serial numbers and nameplates. What the auction house actually hands over is listed in our piece on documents for a machine bought at auction.
When it is worth moving the machine before the paperwork is done
Sometimes the removal deadline falls earlier than the formalities can be closed or the rest of the load accumulated. The sensible move is then to take the machine off the yard and put it into our warehouse in Milton Keynes for short-term storage, until the documents are complete or the batch is full. The warehouse runs around the clock and we handle receipt and release, cross-dock and batch consolidation there; the procedure is described in our article on receipt and release in Milton Keynes.
What we do not quote
Payment terms, the length of the removal period, storage rates and release hours. Those are variable and set by the conditions of the particular sale. From them we need two dates: by when payment is due and by when the machine has to be off the yard.
Sources
- GOV.UK: exporting goods from the United Kingdom
- GOV.UK: EORI number
- European Commission: calculation of customs duties and customs value
Won a lot and got a removal date? Send the invoice, the release note and the yard address through the quote form and we will cost the haulage and set a date. See also customs clearance.
